At the Kappa Sigma food booth at Eighth and High streets, Mary Spotz of Rantoul was fulfilling a Maple Leaf obligation, purchasing four turkey legs to take back to her husband.

“We used to live if Baldwin,” she said. “Every year, I have to get him turkey legs.”

Spotz smartly came to the booth while a crowd four rows deep watched the parade at its turn north on Sixth Street from High Street. Thirty minutes later she would have had to wait in line at least 10 minutes to order food.

But a good number of festival goers were already browsing booths downtown and along Eighth Street. Donna Curran, Maple Leaf Festival Committee crafts booth chairman, said everything was in place for a great day.

“The weather’s wonderful,” she said. “The wind yesterday was a little hard on some of my vendors’ tents, but everyone is set up and ready for the crowd to start arriving.”